Daily Archives: September 1, 2009

Sep 1 2009

I'll Have A Quarter Pounder, Large Fry and A Copy of Prosser on Torts, Please?

I just love innovative ways to stay relevant in the digital age! The Houston Public Library is implementing a new program called “HPL to Go” – a service which will allow library patrons of particularly traffic-burdened branches to receive their book order delivered right to their car! In conjunction with Info Quest and Info 24/7 (services permitting text queries and internet queries to reference librarians, respectively), the Library is seeking “ways to remain relevant in the iPhone era.”

To receive your order, simply reserve the books or other material via internet. Once notified that the materials are ready, you can then head to the library, call the librarian, offer the pertinent information including a description of your car and await your materials. While the HPL to Go program is tied to the HPL library system, Info Quest is a national resource offering the expertise of reference librarians across the country to answer questions around the clock.

Check out the HPL’s update on the Bookmobile: HPL Mobile Express is a van loaded with computers that visits under-served neighborhoods  offering computer classes and resume writing instruction.

Hooray for innovation in information resources!

Hat Tip to Resource Shelf

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Sep 1 2009

I’ll Have A Quarter Pounder, Large Fry and A Copy of Prosser on Torts, Please?

I just love innovative ways to stay relevant in the digital age! The Houston Public Library is implementing a new program called “HPL to Go” – a service which will allow library patrons of particularly traffic-burdened branches to receive their book order delivered right to their car! In conjunction with Info Quest and Info 24/7 (services permitting text queries and internet queries to reference librarians, respectively), the Library is seeking “ways to remain relevant in the iPhone era.”

To receive your order, simply reserve the books or other material via internet. Once notified that the materials are ready, you can then head to the library, call the librarian, offer the pertinent information including a description of your car and await your materials. While the HPL to Go program is tied to the HPL library system, Info Quest is a national resource offering the expertise of reference librarians across the country to answer questions around the clock.

Check out the HPL’s update on the Bookmobile: HPL Mobile Express is a van loaded with computers that visits under-served neighborhoods  offering computer classes and resume writing instruction.

Hooray for innovation in information resources!

Hat Tip to Resource Shelf

Sep 1 2009

Great Government Goods

Lots of new tools and updated features on old tools coming on line for federal information tracking. Peggy Garvin at LLRX lists the goods in her article here. Many of the changes involve Twitter for updating and tracking the progress of legislation, as well as RSS feeds for ongoing news. I won’t provide the entire list of tools, as it is lengthy, but I do urge anyone interested in federal legislative and conressional research to hit the jump above and check out all the new ways our government is looking to the Web to assist in providing open access to public information. 

One interesting point: if you are looking to tweet about specific legislation yourself, the article suggests using hashtags, such as #usbill or a hashtag with the bill number, such as #hr3200. This will assist the government sites in collecting relevant information, which can then be compiled and broadly shared.